Midwest has lots at stake in 'clean coal'
Carbon sequestration could ease energy hunger
 ( COLUMBUS DISPATCH ) |
Coal is king when it comes to generating electricity in the United States, producing nearly half of the nation's power.
And will the most idealistic scenario, the "clean coal" technology in which carbon is captured and forever sequestered underground, ever be viable?
To date, it hasn't been, in part because carbon dioxide is a light gas that wants to rise, making it hard to keep trapped. Plus, there are questions about the necessary geology.
There's a lot at stake, especially for the Great Lakes region. And big money is being spent to find answers.
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It was the latest major grant issued by the U.S. Department of Energy to the group, one of seven doing similar research across the country.
Containing carbon emissions was to be the backbone of the much-ballyhooed FutureGen project, which was a $1 billion bonanza and a cornerstone of President Bush's energy policy when it was announced in 2003. The winner was to become the nation's center for clean-coal research as host of the first such plant deploying that technology.
Mr. Bush pulled the plug on it earlier this year, though, citing costs rising to $1.8 billion. Opponents claimed the decision was largely because Mr. Bush's home state, Texas, was beaten out by Illinois as the host state.
Ohio had been making a push for it, too.
In England, BP is leading a $25 million carbon sequestration research project involving eight countries. Results could conceivably help ensure the viability of BP's oil refineries, including one in eastern Lucas County.
Only three industrial-scale projects on carbon-capture and sequestration are under way worldwide. One is off the Norway shoreline, another in a western Canada oil field, and another in an Algerian gas field. Each handles a million tons of carbon dioxide.
It is abundant in southern Ohio, although much of it has sulfur too high for it to be burned unless better pollution controls are developed.
This part of the country is the nation's biggest coal consumer.
After Texas, the next four states for coal consumption are Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. A year ago, Ohio was second only to Texas, according to the Energy Information Administration, an agency within the Energy Department.
Ohio is one of 24 states, plus the District of Columbia, that have passed laws requiring utilities doing business with them to come up with a more diversified energy mix. Ohio has called for 20 percent of a utility's energy to come from wind, solar, and other forms of renewable energy by 2020.
The de-emphasis on coal has opened new doors for renewable energy producers, which collectively produced less than 1 percent of the nation's share of energy.
Wind, though, is now the nation's fastest-growing form of energy. Its advocates believe that wind can command 6 percent of the market share within two decades.
Governors in several manufacturing states, including Ohio, are eyeing the job-growth potential that program carries.
"Energy can be a catalyst for new jobs, bringing forth a new day, a new economy, a new Ohio," Gov. Ted Strickland said when announcing his Energy, Jobs, and Progress plan last year.
He cited a report that said "an expanded use of renewable energy would provide Ohio more than 20,000 new manufacturing jobs building the products necessary to harvest the energy of the wind, sun, water and other renewable resources."
Coal is expected to remain a staple of America's energy portfolio for decades, because -- like nuclear, hydro, and natural gas plants -- it provides what's known as "baseload" energy. That's electricity that can be relied upon 24 hours a day.
That dilemma has been played out in Bowling Green, a city that has touted itself as Ohio's leader for renewable energy. In addition to having the state's first four industrial-scale wind turbines at the Wood County landfill, six miles west of the city, Bowling Green State University has one of the few hockey arenas with ice made partially from the sun. The arena's roof is covered by solar panels.
As much as Bowling Green has embraced clean, renewable energy, it can't wean itself off coal.
The AMP-Ohio project is in southeast Ohio, along the Ohio River in Meigs County's Letart Township. The target date for completion is 2013.
The United States had long been the world's biggest consumer of coal, but has been surpassed by China.
China is building coal-fired power plants so quickly in its quest to become modernized that key officials, such as U.S. Sen. George Voinovich (R., Ohio), have expressed misgivings about imposing climate regulations on the United States that aren't matched by it.
Some officials in developing countries, though, feel it's disingenuous of the United States to become a superpower with the help of coal and now try to discourage other countries from using it. U.S. officials, though, would like to see developing countries embrace technological advances that didn't exist years ago.
For Ohio and Michigan, there will be changes. But given their manufacturing legacy, the energy needs of those two states can't be denied.
"We are blessed to be among the nation's leading manufacturing states and to be home to one of America's largest concentrations of Fortune 500 companies," Mr. Strickland said when announcing his energy plan last year.
"But the consequence of all that is done here and all that is made here is the vast quantity of energy that is consumed here."
Contact Tom Henry at: thenry@theblade.com
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